Site Meter What I Learned Today - MG's CIP: Dog Knees and ACSI Money

Monday, January 7, 2008

Dog Knees and ACSI Money

Interesting day so far. That necessitates an interesting Title.

First off - I'm pretty sure my 93 lb yellow lab needs ACL surgery. This would be her second in the last 4 years. Yes, that's right - the other knee this time.

This poor beast has worse luck than a third round center from Georgetown. She was running around the yard with her pup-older-brother and the yelping started. We got her into the vet this morning and they have her now - they're leaning toward surgery needed. Apparently it's pretty common for mid to larger dogs. Didn't think it was this common. So I'm thinking to myself as my wife gives me the call "there goes the vacation fund" as these surgeries and the associated rehab (yes, there's rehab for doggy surgery - water tank treadmills no less. I wish I was making this up). Then I go into a meeting with a potential partner and the trip to North Carolina may not be sunk just yet.

Anybody familiar with the American Customer Service Index?

It's basically a group that rates customer satisfaction of major corporations done through the University of Michigan which makes use of a algorithm designed by Klaus (Schwab? - not sure I caught the last name correctly) and owned by ForeSee Results, to give folks an idea of how happy the consumer world is with an organization's execution.

So what does this have to do with my dog's knee surgery? Here's where it get interesting. Apparently the guy who came up with this algorithm is some sort of financial/math/etc genius. He developed a hedge fund based on companies within the ACSI ratings. Those on the rise he bought stock in, those falling he sold short - made a pretty penny. It has typically outperformed the stock market since it's inception.

So we're going to take the vacation fund and put it all on this! No, not really. I would like to do a trial run on some of the stocks and see how it works before dropping real money on it. Anybody have a free "try your hand at investing" site I can try?

My vacation may be saved! My dog thanks you, and my family thanks you in advance.

5 comments:

mymo said...

Welcome to the Blogosphere.

If you wanted to track the performance of certain companies without actually buying stock (a practice that usually leaves me kicking myself) you can use Google Finance, it allows you to enter your portfolio info, and track it over time.

Matt Garlock said...

Thanks mymo - Hope Chicago is treating you kindly. I'm going to try to put a sample fund together so I can kick myself too!

Denise Zdunczyk said...

Hi, Matt. I actually work at ForeSee Results (the company that owns the ACSI). Were you successful with developing the hedge fund that Claes Fornell developed using the ACSI methodology? :)

Thank you

Denise Z (in Ann Arbor, Michigan)

Matt Garlock said...

I started, but it got pretty complex, pretty quickly. Not a simple process. I've been told since that there is one already out there, but I haven't found it. Any ideas on how to find it?

Anonymous said...

Not sure, but heard there is a 1 million buy in.